Personal watercraft (PWC or watercraft) have become increasingly popular in recent years. A personal watercraft, also known as a “jet ski” typically has a bottom hull, handle bars for steering, a tunnel within the bottom hull, a jet pump located within the bottom tunnel, and an engine within the hull under the top deck for driving the jet pump. The jet pump typically pulls in water from the front of the tunnel under the boat, and discharges the water at high velocity through a steerable nozzle at the rear of the boat. The handlebars are typically coupled to the nozzle, which is the steering mechanism for the personal watercraft. The watercraft commonly has a straddle-type seat and foot wells disposed on either side of the seat.
Personal watercraft typically have a top deck affixed to a bottom hull. The PWC has a shroud mounted in front of the driver on top of the top deck to house the steering column and some instruments. A front portion of the top deck includes a hinged cover or hood. The hood is hingedly mounted to the personal watercraft top deck at the front, rather than at the rear, as in an automobile. The underside of the hood can include a gasket or a grommet that attempts to provide a watertight seal between the hood and the top deck. The hood typically covers either an access opening such as a storage compartment or bin or an engine access port. The watercraft may be provided with additional access openings, supporting other storage compartments or allowing access to the interior of the PWC through the top deck. PWCs may be further provided with storage compartment covers, both hinged and non-hinged, for such additional access openings.
Personal watercraft decks and hulls are typically formed of fiberglass with access openings being cut into or through the deck wall. Whether formed of fiberglass or other material, access openings cut into the decks usually are left unfinished, presenting roughly machined or irregular edges or edge surfaces. Contact with fiberglass particles from the access opening edges can accumulate on the skin causing irritation, itching, temporary redness and other physical discomfort. There is also the potential for similar discomforts and scratches or cuts from contact with roughly machined edges of access openings regardless of the material in to which they are formed or cut.
Previously, access openings have been provided with seals affixed to and around the lip of the access openings which may support a storage compartment. The access opening seal in cooperation with storage compartment and/or the gasket or grommet of the hood or a compartment cover attempts to form a watertight seal. Seals so affixed have left the access opening edge exposed and therefore have not provided protection against contact with the exposed edge when a person reaches into an access opening. Exposed edges of access openings remains a problem in the watercraft industry, particularly with materials such as fiberglass.
It would be desirable to provide a seal that covers the exposed edge of an access opening, thereby protecting a person from contact with the access opening edge. It would be even more desirable to provide a seal that additionally forms a watertight seal in cooperation with a storage compartment supported thereon, a hood, a storage compartment cover or combinations thereof.